[identity_map] i may go to ruby hell for this. but seriously i don't know how to fix this god damn problem!!! KVO creates a random subclass of my models, which interferes with the way i enumerate through my attributes/relationships, which are defined as class instance variables.
[model] go back to using a get_relationships and get_attributes method to enumerate through all superclasses. this should solve all stupid NSKVONotifying bullshit.